Are "crocs" unsafe? This is the second child injured due to wearing them

Boy injures foot in Hartsfield-Jackson escalator

A child was injured Tuesday morning when his foot got caught in an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, officials said.

The boy and his family had just cleared the main security checkpoint were headed down the escalator to the automated people-mover when the boy was hurt around 10 a.m., airport spokesman Hershel Grangent said.

The boy was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlantla at Egleston with a possible broken left foot, Grangent said.

Last month, a Louisville, Ky., mother filed suit against the manufacturer of the popular Crocs shoes for injuries her 3-year-old daughter suffered when her foot was trapped in an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson.

The mother, Alison Cox Pregliasco, said her daughter's foot was caught an airport escalator and permanently injured June 4. Once the shoe was shredded, the escalator ripped the skin off the child's big toe and broke that toe and two others, attorney Andrew Laskin said.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/07/29/airport_escalator_injured_foot.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

escalator accidents before passing judgement.

BTW, Crocs are butt ugly. Why would ANYONE wear them????

re: Crocs, maybe they're comfy? :shrug:

Well, maybe not brand name, but the cheap knock offs.

They're easy to put on and off, comfortable, and easy to hose down.

and with waves sometimes washing over the deck, the crocs prevent me from slipping and I'm not ruining leather shoes or uncomfortable sandals with salt water. They make good boat shoes.

And now I know what they're called. Over the past year, I've seen more and more women wearing them. Those things are fugly. The antithesis of "fuck me" shoes. They're "do not think of me sexually even if I have a wonderful body, I'm naked (apart from my crocs) and masturbating" shoes.

Perhaps, as others have said, they're extremely comfortable. They sure don't look it. Well, they have a sensible width across the toes, so for toe comfort they have to be a lot better than fashion shoes. But the rest of it...

I am minded of the craze for Dr Scholl's flip-flops that happened when I was a kid. My parents fell for the advertising. We all wore them at the beach. For about a day. Then tossed them.

I remember when Hush Puppies came out. I fell for the advertising. They weren't any more comfortable than ordinary shoes. And the soles were such that a fly breathing on the pavement caused enough condensation to make them skid dangerously. I took them back to the shop and complained but the assistant said I must be wrong because the soles were made of crêpe. I figured that was the posh way of pronouncing "crap" and left.

Are you sure, those of you who say these things are comfortable, that you've not been taken in by the advertising?

I keep telling my kids that is possible... they don't believe me.

In Indiana, ages ago a kid was injured when his BELT got caught.,.that's right..his BELT.. Mom let him lie down on the escalator :eyes:

Kids shouldn't wear belts.

:rofl:

with sneakers with the laces undone.

in downtown boston, i ended tripping and the edge of the metal stair went into my knee, still have the scar but i wish i had a way better story to explain it.

Crocs were never designed for escalator use.

Hawkeye-X

I got my zipper stuck in a baggage carousel.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend zippers on shoes that could get stuck in elevators.

As for crocs, I'd like to see some stats. There are millions of kids wearing them. What are the RELATIVE dangers vs. other shoes? That's what's relevant

Caution is a good idea no matter what you're doing... :(

I'm having a hard time imagining :)

actually, i was sitting on the edge of the carousel and my zipper got stuck in the moving portion.

It was very logan's run... CAROUSEL CAROUSEL

wear them that the numbers are skewed.

they're ugly as home-made soap.

How people can stand to have those dreadful looking things on their feet is beyond me.

very comfy & light. quick on & off - you can see why they're perfect for toddlers. great for gardening, great for taking the dog to the dog beach. and there the only rubber shoe (tevas, chacos) i've worn that doesn't dry out & crack the skin on my heels.

i don't wear them to dinner or work.

Adds cool color to the dark color scrubs we have to wear and, best part, they are the most comfortable things I have ever worn as a nurse (who is on her feet all day)! Cushiony, allow for quick walking down the halls..I don't even feel my feet at the end of the day because of the better support I get than with tennis shoes.

EDIT: Chuck Norris would of course simply put his foot through all four shoes, thus eliminating the problem.

and their focus was on the safety of the shoes.

:)

...to the number of folks injured wearing other brands of shoes. I suspect far fewer people hurt their feet while wearing their Crocs than while wearing, say, Nikes. I'll bet more people have even been injured on escalators wearing Nikes than Crocs.

I guess my point is that how one behaves and what activities one engages in makes more difference than the brand of shoe, by far. Crocs have especially wide toe boxes-- that's one of the things that makes them so good for my feet-- so folks who wear them need to pay attention to where they put their toes, just like other shoe wearers need to pay attention to the condition of their laces.

Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a warning in May against wearning soft shoes on escalators:

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/07/07/crocs-ugly-and-dangerous.aspx

watching a kid who was between three and four (with her parents) wearing high heal shoes in a mall. As one of the sisters pointed out, letting these toddlers wear lipstick is one thing, when you give them high heel shoes when their spinal cord is still growing, you are begging for serious problems. Sometimes parents are unbelievably dumb.

Have there been other croc/escalator accidents? Maybe that one isn't calibrated properly. Seems funny both accidents happened at the same place.

BTW, croc wearers swear that they are very comfy and give great support for people who have plantars faciitis and knee problems. Haven't tried them myself, but I'd like to. They're not all butt ugly. Take a look at their site. I'm thinking about trying the 'silver fox' for when I have to stand performing a 2-hour concert.

The other is PowerStep insoles. :thumbsup:!

there is nothing odd about having a lot of "stuff" happen at a place where a lot of people go

ATL is in some years the busiest airport in america

you do not need to be going up/down escalators in a busy airport with shoes that come on/off easy, that's a recipe for a broken neck, sounds like these kids got off easy

i see people wearing crocs at LAS (maccarran, las vegas) and while not the busiest airport in america, for fuck's sake, it's busy enough to be dangerous...

I'd heard that could happen and never believed it, thought it was urban legend material until I saw his butt.

Did anyone read the story?

"The boy was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlantla at Egleston with a possible broken left foot, Grangent said.

He did not know the boy's age or what kind of shoes the boy was wearing."

The Crocs lawsuit was a different event, thrown in gratuitously.

according to the NPR report I heard.

and then there's this:

Kids Hurt While Wearing Crocs on Escalators

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4694425&page=1

Be quick, be nimble on the damned escalator.

They are especially unsafe for people who are distracted by hand-held video games, iPods, cell phones, etc.

It's not really easy to get your shoe stuck in an escalator. And with 2 accidents out of millions of Croc's sold, well...

And just IMHO, Croc's are the ugliest most expensive pieces of plastic I have ever seen. My kid asked for a pair, we looked at the "real" ones, $28 bucks. A pair of knockoff's, 6.95!

And not the shoes.


BTW, Crocs makes shoes other than those butt-ass ugly ones. I have a couple of pairs and they're the most comfy shoes ever.

"He did not know the boy's age or what kind of shoes the boy was wearing."

Why did you remove that, then start a thread indicating he was wearing Crocs??????

and WSB.

WSB is the local radio station that reports the weather, driving conditions, etc.

and the AJC story is an earlier version.

and I couldn't find the WSB story online.

want my blood type, too?

It does remain possible that NPR grabbed the story without a careful reading. This particular story doesn't say the kid was wearing Crocs, yet you have to be careful how you read it.

The other story you referenced above is cause for concern though.

the first story and then this--

Last month, a Louisville, Ky., mother filed suit against the manufacturer of the popular Crocs shoes for injuries her 3-year-old daughter suffered when her foot was trapped in an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson.

The mother, Alison Cox Pregliasco, said her daughter's foot was caught an airport escalator and permanently injured June 4. Once the shoe was shredded, the escalator ripped the skin off the child's big toe and broke that toe and two others, attorney Andrew Laskin said.

Don't blame the croc.

QUICK!!!!

I LUV my crocks, and they're definitely safer than flip flops, imo.

moving sidewalks and baggage carousals make me nervous. In a factory, there's a prominent emergency switch in case someone gets caught. Sometimes there's a rope switch that runs the length of the conveyor. the places I worked at weren't up to OSHA standards, so newer factories probably have better emergency shut-offs. So where's the shut-off on an escalator or baggage carousal?

but when they are getting worn out, they can get a little 'slippery'...

i was in Tortola last summer, mid-morning, just walking down the street, arms (hands, anyway) full of wine, etc....when my feet just slipped out from under me because of a dinky little bit of water on the sidewalk...

i slid on my ass and knees (a feat not to be attempted by rank amateurs)...but no bottles were broken!!

by the way...my friends claimed "You are still drunk!" which is somewhat true...maybe it wasn't the crocs....

years and years before Crocs were invented.

I wouldn't dream of wearing such incredibly ugly shoes, outside of maybe gardening. When I see someone wearing them out somewhere I marvel at it. Ugh.

Julie--certified shoe snob

those shoes with the roller skate wheels. Thanks for the info.